U.S. Women's Chamber of Commerce Approved as Third Party Certifier for New Federal Women-Owned Small Business Set-Aside Program; Accepting Applications Now

On June 30, 2011, The U.S. Small Business Administration approved the U.S. Women's Chamber of Commerce as a Third Party Certifier for the Women-Owned Small Business ("WOSB") Federal Contracting Program.

There is a lot happening this summer as the U.S. Women's Chamber of Commerce continues to lead strongly in support of our members.

A very exciting new addition to our summer meetings is the WOSB National Council | Summer Conference in Washington, DC on July 27 & 28, 2011. The Summer Conference marks the formal launch of the WOSB National Council™ -- the National Association for Women-Owned Small Business Contractors™ which is facilitated jointly by the U.S. Women's Chamber of Commerce™ and the National Association of Small Business Contractors™. We already have an excellent representation of federal agencies and prime contractors confirmed for the Summer Conference and expect many more to confirm over the next few weeks. Go here to learn more WOSB National Council | Summer Conference.

U.S. Women's Chamber of Commerce Dismisses Long Standing Legal Claim Against U.S. Small Business Administration

Women Business Owners Look Forward to Business Growth with the Implementation Women-Owned Small Business Federal Contracting Program

WASHINGTON DC, March 14, 2011 -- The U.S. Women’s Chamber of Commerce and the U.S. Small Business Administration jointly dismissed a long standing legal claim that was filed by the U.S. Women's Chamber of Commerce against the SBA in 2004 over the failure of the Bush Administration to implement the more than decade old Women-Owned Small Business (WOSB) Federal Contracting Program.

"It is only fitting that the final steps towards implementing the Women-Owned Small Business Federal Contracting Program should happen during Women's History Month," said Margot Dorfman, CEO of the U.S. Women's Chamber of Commerce. "For more than a decade, women have waited for the Small Business Administration to carry out the will of Congress by implementing a contracting program that enables contracting officers, under certain conditions, to set-aside contract competitions between women-owned firms. We are confident this important program will help federal agencies to finally provide women-owned firms with fair access to federal contracts," adds Dorfman.

USWCC, CEO - Margot Dorfman and Members of the House of Representatives Hold Press Conference in Support of Women's Federal Procurement ProgramThe U.S. Women's Chamber of Commerce has been working for years to spur the Small Business Administration to implement the over decade-old Congressionally mandated women's set-aside program. We won a claim against the SBA for failure to implement the law -- and kept this issue alive, and under the careful watch of the courts, to assure that the SBA under the Obama Administration move expedientlyforward towards a full implementation as intended by Congress.

The SBA has finally published the "final rules" for the program -- the federal rules/regulations that will be employed to setup and run the program. And, now we wait another 120 days or so for the implementation process to be completed.

There is nothing for you to do at this time -- as we must simply wait again while the federal government continues inching forward. However, I know you are all very interested in the industries included/excluded and the full administrative scope. You can read the final rule here and view the NAICS codes included here. And, after the U.S. Women's Chamber of Commerce has carefully reviewed the final rules, we will provide a thorough, detailed analysis.

We extend our thanks to the publishers of U.S. Banker for publishing the following op-ed from the U.S. Women's Chamber of Commerce in their October 2010 Edition, "The 25 Most Powerful Women in Banking."

Excerpt: "The hype surrounding the tremendous growth of women-owned businesses continues to overlook the bottom line for measuring the success of all businesses: revenue and profits. Newly released data from the U.S. Census Bureau shows that, even though the number of women-owned businesses grew 44 percent between 1997 and 2007, our already small market share, as measured by revenue, declined more than 10 percent, dropping from 4.41 percent in 1997 to 3.95 percent in 2007."

WASHINGTON, DC/July 19, 2010 -- Today, the U.S. Women’s Chamber of Commerce™ released an important report to Congress titled; “Women’s Businesses Struggle for Market Share,” which finds, during a decade of strong growth in the number of women-owned firms, women’s revenue-based market share shrank ten percent.

The U.S. Women’s Chamber of Commerce takes issue with two recent, influential reports – “The Shriver Report: A Woman’s Nation,” which presents women as employees and family breadwinners and the Harvard Business Review report, “The Female Economy,” which views women as consumers. The U.S. Women’s Chamber of Commerce argues that neither report grasps the transformative opportunity women now have to focus and leverage our clout as consumers and business owners to consolidate and leverage the gains women have made over the last one hundred and sixty years to shape the business and employer marketplace to reflect our values and objectives.

U.S. Women's Chamber of Commerce CEO Margot Dorfman testified before Congress during a joint hearing of the U.S. House of Representatives Small Business and Financial Services Committee. She was asked to provide insights into the current status of small business lending. Our members have told us how challenging and expensive accessing capital is right now. Businesses can't grow and seize opportunity.>>View the video and read her testimony.